The coronavirus crisis and the agency’s response to it in 2020 dominates the focus of the annual report of the federal credit union regulator released Tuesday.
In the report from the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), the agency lists five key responses to the COVID-19 pandemic that it said were intent on addressing the economic and financial disruptions of the crisis. Those are (in the order listed by the agency):
- Protecting agency staff and contractors and the staff and members of credit unions by moving to a remote operations posture at the start of the pandemic;
- Strengthening the Central Liquidity Facility (CLF) to serve as a liquidity backstop for the credit union system;
- Supporting low-income, small, and minority credit unions through the Community Development Revolving Loan Fund’s (CDRLF) technical assistance grants and loans;
- Providing measures of regulatory relief to help credit unions adapt to operational changes resulting from social distancing measures; and
- Implementing statutory changes resulting from the passage of pandemic relief measures, such as the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) enacted a year ago as the financial impact of the coronavirus crisis became apparent.
The agency also pointed in the report to the audited financial statements for the agency’s four funds (CLF, CDRLF, National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund [NCUSIF], and the NCUA operating fund [the agency’s budget]), which the agency said earned unmodified or “clean” opinions for 2020.
The report lists the agency’s strategic goals for 2018-22 as:
- Ensuring a safe and sound credit union system.
- Providing a regulatory framework that is transparent, efficient, and improves consumer access.
- Maximizing organizational performance to enable mission success.